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In Sewing

Pricing Sewing Patterns : Thoughts and Tips

April 1, 2014 4 Comments

NOTE : I no longer promote Craftsy/Bluprint as I used to due to the way the subscription is currently being carried out. I had the issue of cancelling my subscription when the company changed hand and I find that cancelling through calls is inconvenient. However, I do still stand behind these classes I promote and if you are subscribed, you can surely check these classes I recommend on the platform. If you are looking for another online platform to learn craft such as quilting, do check out CreativeBug. It is much cheaper in subscription (subscribe now 3 months for only $5). Thank you.

Hi!

I have been thinking about pricing patterns lately. My Girlfriend’s wallet is soon to be released and am still weighing how much shall it be sold for. So, while thinking about this, I thought I should share some of my thoughts about pricing sewing patterns based on little research that I did. You are most welcome to leave a comment of what you think too, cause I would love to hear it. In fact, it will be a great place to have a bit of discussion on this topic and see things from various points of view.

Girlfriend’s Wallet prototype I made before I finally got the hang of it :

Going back a few years ago, I never thought I would ever buy a pattern, because there are so many free tutorials out there. However, those days have definitely changed. I bought some lovely patterns from Indie designers and most of the one one I bought was definitely worth the price. Nowadays, PDF patterns have become popular with fast delivery directly downloadable in Etsy shops, Craftsy or any other platform.

I think Craftsy is a great platform for PDF patterns. I love browsing through all of them. However, I do find that I rarely buy from those whom I don’t really know. I mostly buy from those who blog, as I can basically have a sense of how their work is and I get to know their patterns through their blog too.

I Heart Quilt Pattern available on Craftsy

I previously bought some patterns from Red Pepper Quilt, Elizabeth Hartman, Noodlehead and other designers at Go To Patterns. So far, I love every single one of them. I love the details and photos in Elizabeth Hartman’s pattern and I think they are definitely worth their price. I learn new things in each one I own. RPQ’s pattern are far simpler, but I love the simplicity of it too, but I probably be a bit choosy of which pattern I buy. As much as I love Thimbleblossom’s design, I realised I haven’t bought any pattern Camille, except the one in Craftsy class and her books. In the craftsy version, I thought the patterns seem a bit too simple for me though the design and the fabrics she chose is of course drop dead gorgeous. Swoon. So, in that case, I guess I rather find it is worth buying the book and the craftsy classes instead. And not to forget, her lines of fabulous fabrics.

From my experience, most quilt patterns seem to be more simplified with less steps (since most of them are block repeat) whereas bag patterns are more complicated,with critical steps and clothing patterns are in between them. PDF clothing patterns are quite a task to put together, but I still think they are worth it.

While I am thinking about pricing my upcoming patterns, I pick up some tips how to price patterns, so I would love to share them with you :

1) Compare with similar patterns : visit pattern stores and see how others price their work. This does give a bit of hint. Though, from my experience the range of pattern prices is really wide especially in Craftsy. It is al
so difficult to judge since we don’t know how the pattern is written unless we purchase it. So I did this instead : look at the price and the way the pattern is written in all of the patterns I bought. Then compare how your work is to them and see how they match. The price should be in the same range of the one that matches your work.

2) Research your audience : Visit others who you think might be a potential buyer. You can do a bit of stalking to see what patterns they have bought and how much is your potential buyer is willing to spend for a pattern

3) Have an aim and do a little bit of calculations. Gauge how much time you have spent on making the patterns, the prototype and how many photos you have taken/edited for the pattern. Then, set a reasonable time and amount that you aim to achieve. For an example, lets say you can sell 2 patterns per month, in 12 month, you may sell 24 patterns. If you sell each one at $8, you shall earn $192. Not much, but it is a long term sell. Remember that it can still be sold after 12 month anyway. And you may get more buyers as you promote or grow.

4) Seek others opinion. I think this is best. And that is what I am doing now, so please do leave a comment on your thoughts.

5) Have your own opinion and believe in your strength. I guess in the end you also have to have a bit of confidence and believe in yourself. Gauge how happy you are with the pattern and how much would you like to earn from them. It is no fun having to make such effort and spend a lot of time making the patterns and not get as much as you wanted. I mean, we are just doing little business here and I believe all of us are actually supporting each other. Most of us make patterns to sell just simply to support a tiny part of our crafty hobbies.

So there, 5 tips to put a price on your pattern. Now, these are just some tips. Not a hard and fast rules. The part of getting it sold is another thing, which I think is rarely due to the pricing. Maybe making it cheaper shall get you more buyers, but in the end I think it really depends on how you sell them to public and letting them know the existence of the pattern itself.

These are just my two cents, I have no affiliation whatsover with any of the pattern designers above. It is solely my opinion. How about you? care to share your thoughts on this topic or even share some of your experience with patterns? What kind of patterns do you think is worth buying? How much will you pay?

Last but not least, I would also love to hear, at what price would buy the Girlfriend’s Wallet Pattern?

Thanks so much for reading this, would love to hear your thoughts too.

XOXO,

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In Free Motion Quilting

How to make customized monogrammed couple pillows

January 14, 2014 3 Comments

Hi!

Today I would like to share with you a tutorial on how to make monogrammed couple pillows using the Tranpunto Quilting technique.

You will need as follows :

and 2 pieces of 18″ x18″ of muslin fabric for the backing of the front piece of the pillows.

Turn the pillow around through the unzip part and you are done! take a photo and share it on littlemushroomcap f
lickr pool.

This is such a great way to practice that free motion skill! For ideas on which type of dense quilting you can do, try these tutorial links:

The Inbox Jaunt : Squiggle Square

Leah Day’s Free Motion : Super Circuit Board

or you can always practice simple meandering too !

XOXO

Linking to Sew Cute Tuesday At Blossom Heart Quilts

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In Completed Projects

It’s Finished! : I Heart Quilt Pattern

January 10, 2014 14 Comments

Hi!

I am finally done with my second version of “I Heart Quilt”.

I Heart Quilt. pattern to be released soon

I fell in love with the first quilt so much that I was not willing to part with it. I remembered making the quilt with intention to sell the finished quilt but I didn’t sell it in the end. For the record, I haven’t even listed any of my finished quilts for sale. However, I am going to make a new record this year by kicking off with my first listing on Etsy.

Since I am not following a pattern, I guess it should be legal to sell it right? That was my concern when I started thinking about selling quilts. I can’t simply sell a quilt I made out of patterns published in magazines and books right? Correct me if I am wrong. Some patterns have written copyrights on them and it’s made clear that we can’t sell quilts made with the pattern. However, how about those in magazines? I guess making quilts to sell is far harder than making it to give.

The plan was to sell it and I didn’t want to break any copyright laws,so I designed “I heart Quilt” and made it up as I go. You can read more about the journey here.

With all the hard work done, might as well, I put an extra effort to make a pattern out of it. It will be great to see more of this quilt in different colors and fabrics. So, I made another version for the pattern writing process and the quilt is Layer Cake friendly!

NOTE : I no longer promote Craftsy/Bluprint as I used to due to the way the subscription is currently being carried out. I had the issue of cancelling my subscription when the company changed hand and I find that cancelling through calls is inconvenient. However, I do still stand behind these classes I promote and if you are subscribed, you can surely check these classes I recommend on the platform. If you are looking for another online platform to learn craft such as quilting, do check out CreativeBug. It is much cheaper in subscription (subscribe now 3 months for only $5). Thank you.

Here is the link to the quilt pattern on Craftsy.

If you do make one, feel free to link in my flickr group or on craftsy. If you find mistakes or would like to comment on the pattern, I am open to hear it out. This is my first quilt pattern, so I would really love to hear feedbacks!

Update : Ever since 2015, I only sell this pattern via payhip
You can click the following link :Buy eBook

This quilt is for sale here and the pattern is for sale on Craftsy or my etsy shop.

Thank you for supporting me and my crafty adventures.

Lots of love,

Linking up to

and

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In Free Motion Quilting

Customized Couple Pillows : Trapunto quilting

January 5, 2014 18 Comments

Hi!

I made a special wedding gift recently using a technique called “trapunto quilting”. I decided to make something that they can put on their bed, and thought a monogrammed pillow with their initials would be a great gift.

wedding gift_customized pillow_whole quilt

At first I was thinking to applique the initials but I feel like applique would speak too loud for these pillows. So, to make things more subtle, I decided to just hide the initials among the quilting. Besides, there is always a time when you need to practice that free motion skill. So making this pillow was definitely a great practice!

To make the lettering stand out even more, trapunto technique was used for the lettering in these pillows.

At the bottom of their initials, I put ” Together.. till Jannah”. Jannah means Heaven in arabic.

What do you think? I sure hope the couple love them.

I will publish a tutorial soon for making these pillows. It is certainly a great chance to practice that free motion skill if you have been wanting to do so.

Till then,

Have a lovely week dear friends,

XOXO

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In Completed Projects

About A Quilt Sampler Final post : How To Join Quilt As You Go Blocks

December 15, 2013 19 Comments

Here is my last post for the About A Quilt Sampler! This quilt uses the ‘Quilt-As-You-Go’ technique.Thank you for keeping up with me, it was a lovely journey of documenting this QAL.

If you happen to land here first, I have archived all of the posts HERE so you can go through all the tutorials for each block and quilting tutorials included in this quilt-along.

We are now at a stage where we can piece all the blocks together and finally bind the quilt!

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In Custom FMQ Sampler Quilt Along

About A Quilt Sampler QAL #19 & #20 :: Piecing and quilting block #9

October 31, 2013 4 Comments

Woohoo!! This the last block for our quilt along “About A quilt Sampler” .

If you happen to land here first, I have archived all of the posts HERE so you can go through all the tutorials for each block and quilting tutorials included in this quilt along.

For this final block, we are making a star block.

It seems simple, but a bit tricky when piecing those sharp points. Last time we made this similar block here, I find that it is easy to make error and get a smaller block at the end. However, this time round, I figured out a better way to limit those errors. Follow the instruction below and hopefully, you will be able to get good 12.5″ unfinished block!

Block #9 cutting instruction:

From background fabrics,
cut 4 pieces of 4 7/8″ x 4.3/4″ squares and cut 4 pieces of 4 1/2″ squares (not shown in photo)

From printed fabric for the star points,
cut 4 pieces of 5 1/4″ x 2 5/8″ rectangles

From the printed fabric for the center;
cut 1 piece of 4 1/2″ square

For the star points, cut 2 pieces of the rectangular piece in half through the diagonal. Do the same with another 2 pieces, except this time, diagonally in opposite direction.

For the almost equilateral triangle, take the 4 7/8″ x 4 3/4″ block and fold in half. Keep in mind that the 4 7/8″ side is the base of the triangle.

Now, you want to cut this triangle as so that the tip is not as sharp. It should be about 1/4″ blunt.

Now, piece the star points by joining the printed triangles with the equilateral triangle. I press my seams toward the equilateral triangles. Once you have all 8 points ready, arrange the pieces in 9 patch as below.

Start sewing in rows then sew the rows together minding the seams so that they would either nestle or opened.

<

Well, that’s it. I love how pointy the star look. Trim your block to 12.5″ square

<

Now, let’s get quilting!

Custom Free Motion Quilting Tutorial – Secondary pattern

This time round, I will show you how to create more points for the star through quilting. This will be a secondary pattern that will give the block a little more feature.

Firstly, measure 1/4″ from the side, and mark all around with an erasable pen. Then, mark 1″ and 2″ from the valley on each sides of the points.

From these points, draw a line towards the center of each valley.

I started quilting by quilting on the lines and then fills in the spaces between the lines with a filler of back and forth quilting lines. The denser you do these back and forth lines, the more of those unquilted parts will pop out.

Finish off by adding any features in the middle and that’s it for this block! I hope you enjoyed making this block and quilting it!

Here is where we are at now! You can arrange your blocks as you like and we will be attaching them together soon and binding it off.

I love the fun coloured backing I chose for this Quilt As you Go! Are you as excited to put the quilt together?

Let me know how you go!

Hugs,

Amira

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In Custom FMQ Sampler Quilt Along

About A Quilt Sampler QAL #17 & #18 : Piecing and Quilting Block 8

October 2, 2013 2 Comments

Yes I am very late to post on this one (soo sorry for those waiting) but better late then never I believe, so here comes September block – to piece and to quilt it.

If this is your first time here, you can read more on this QAL by clicking here.

If you miss previous post you can always go back to all the post by clicking the button on my blog sidebar or below:

So here is how the final block look like:

So, the cutting direction is as follows

Cut 2 pieces of 7 1/4 ” x 3.5″ rectangles from each of the four printed fabrics. Fold in the middle and cut diagonal corner as in the photo below.

For the solids, cut 8 pieces of 3.5″ square and fold center diagonally and cut through the diagonal fold.

You can chain piece all the solid to each corner of the middle printed triangles with a very scant 1/4″ seams and press them open

Do both corners and you will end up with 8 flying geese sets.

Arrange them to your liking and piece two flying geese together and you will end up with four squares with two geese in each one.

Sew the 4 patch together and you are ready to quilt it.

Baste as usual. Mark about a quarter inch inside each corner of the solid background

Quilt a line connecting all three dots marked and do a dense quilting inside each triangles.

Finish up by simply quiting lines coming out one corner of the printed triangles to the opposite side, spreading as even as possible. If you are not confident, you can also draw a line with washable pen first.

Here is the back of my block so you can see the quilting better.

I may have ended up with a wee bit small block for this one because I did eat a bit more than a scant 1/4″ seams. For triangles and biased seams, I find it very important to keep the seam perfect to end up with a perfect size in this case 12.5″ block unfinished. I hope you will do better than me. I need more practice.

Well, we are nearly at the end of the QAL. This month I will also share the last block of all and we are soon to piece them all together!

As always, don’t forget to add your version to littlemushroomcap flickr group!

XOXO

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In Bag Sewing

Sewing Tutorial : Tote Bag Using Faux Leather and Quilting Cotton

August 29, 2013 17 Comments

In this post, I will be sharing a tutorial for making this tote bag. It is a deep tote which fits A4 size notebook nice and neatly. Perfect for college or the trip to the library!

For this tutorial, I use a large fat quarter of dark brown faux leather (bought here) and 2 fat quarters of cotton fabric from Nordika collection by Jeni Baker for Art Gallery Fabrics.

Requirements:

: Measuring at least 27″ x 18″
2 Fat quarter of cotton fabrics
1 half yard of solid cotton fabric for lining

(I use Klasse’s Needle)

Matching thread
Paper clips or

or Craft Glue

One for inner pocket

or

Other regular sewing needs

Template download : Free Sewing Tutorial Template – Tote Bag from The Little Mushroom Cap

Tips on working with Faux leather on your sewing machine:

Reduce the foot pressure on your sewing machine
Use a walking foot or roller foot or teflon foot
Increase stitch length
Use leather needle
TEST on scraps first

I have gone through several try and error and the above works very well in the end.

Products from Amazon.com

Sewing Tutorial How to sew a Faux Leather Panelled Tote Bag

Cutting direction

From the faux leather,

cut 4 pieces of 4″ x 17″ rectangles for outer bodice sides

cut 4 pieces of 2″ x 14″ strips for the straps

cut 4 pieces of hexagon as in template to appliqué at the end of the straps

From one of the cotton fat quarter and the interfacing,

cut 2 pieces of 8″ x 17″ for outer bodice center

cut 2 pieces of 2″ x 5″ for center of straps

(iron on the interfacing to the back of the fabric)

From another cotton fat quarter,

cut 1 piece of 4″ x 8″ for pocket

cut 1 piece of 14″ x 8″ for pocket

From solid lining,

cut 1 piece of 8″ x 8″ for pocket

cut 2 pieces of 4″ x 17″

cut 1 piece of 14.5″ x 17″

Tote tutorial _ faux leather _ nordika _ free tutorial_cutting corners

Cut the corners of the 4″ x 17″ faux leather pieces using the template (download the template in link below)

Free Sewing Tutorial Template Tote Bag The Little Mushroom Cap

Sew the front panels together, and making sure the seams are open, top stitch the seam flat.

Tote tutorial _ faux leather _ nordika _ free tutorial_sew darts

Sew the darts, reversing some stitches at the corner of each dart

Make the straps by sewing the 2″ strips together. Patching the 2″ x 5″ cotton strips in the middle of the 2″ x 14″ faux leather strips. Fold in 1/4″ seams from the side of the strips and fold the whole strips in half. Use paper clips or clover clips to keep this together while you top stitch. Top stitch both sides of the straps.

Position the strap in the center of the seam of the two panels. The raw edge ends of the strap should be about 6″ from the top edge of the front panel. Sew on top of the strap’s topstitch and make a horizontal stitch at about 2″ from the top. (I did 1″ from the top but it makes it difficult later, so I suggest to measure at about 2″ from the top and stitch as the arrow shown in the image)

combine_Tote tutorial _ faux leather _ nordika _ free tutorial_hexies3

Cut the hexagons from the faux leather using the templates provided. Baste the hexagon in place covering the raw edge of the straps. Top stitch the hexagon close to hexagon edges. Do reverse stitches at the beginning and the end to ensure the stitches stay in place

How to sew a bag | Tote tutorial | faux leather |free sewing tutorial

Put the two outer panels together and around the edges leaving the topside seams open. Darts can be sewn nested as shown in the small inset photo.

Now we shall put the outer bag aside, and work on the lining!

combine_Tote tutorial _ faux leather _ nordika _ free tutorial_pocket

Sew the zip to the 4″ x 8″ and 8″ x 14″ pieces by folding in 1/4 seams and topstitching. Take the 8″ x 8″ square solid lining piece and topstitch as in photo 3. Stitch the side panels together to the pocket panel

Tote tutorial _ faux leather _ nordika _ free tutorial_libning panel

You should now have a half side of pocket panel and another solid lining panel measuring 14.5″ x 17″. Trim to that size if necessary.

Tote tutorial _ faux leather _ nordika _ free tutorial_lining corner

Position the corner template
to the bottom corner of the two panels and cut the darts and corner.

Tote tutorial _ faux leather _ nordika _ free tutorial_lining 3

Sew the darts and sew the sides and the base together leaving 6″ opening at the base.

Tote tutorial _ faux leather _ nordika _ free -right side facing_stitch top

Place the outer bag inside the lining bag right side facing and sew the top seam together.

Tote tutorial _ faux leather _ nordika _ free tutorial_turn and close opening

Turn the bag right side out through the 6″ opening at the base. Fold the opening seams in, and topstitch matching thread to close.

Push the lining back inside, and top stitch the top part carefully moving slowly near the straps and you are done!

Enjoy your bag!

Tutorial tote bag using faux leather and quiting cotton_ how to sew faux leather_laid

I’d love to see your version, so be sure too add some photos to littlemushroomcap flickr group or tag me on Instagram!!

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In Free Motion Quilting

Anna Bella HST Quilt Done + Quilting Video

August 23, 2013 32 Comments

Hi!

Finally after hours of quilting this quilt and spamming photos of it in the instagram (I am amira_littlemushroomcap on IG), the quilt is finally done!

This quilt is a gift for my mother, hence the fabrics was bought to match her taste and home. The fabric line is called Anna Bella by Marcus Fabrics. I posted a blogpost when the fabric arrived here. Blogpost on the progress of the quilt here and here.

I know my mother would certainly love a sampler quilt, so I decided to make the HST sampler quilt from In Color Order’s Tutorial.

The quilting was mostly feathers because I wanted to practice feather quilting. I started quilting the blocks, so even though I did have some ugly feathers there, it is not so obvious. Pretty clever ha?

Once I have done all the blocks, I did the sashing. which was ….. totally wrong!

Should have consider quilting from the center towards the outside/border because the quilt backing keeps bulging around in between quilted blocks. It’s okay. Lesson learnt.

I was finally confident with my feathers and decide to go for the feather border. I am pretty please with the end results having it was quilted on a regular domestic machine with no stitch regulator.

Here is a video of me quilting it. If you are interested in quilting feathers yourself on a domestic machine, probably you can get a few things from the video. Please pardon my grammar and english – it is not my first language and spontaneously talking is one thing I am not very good at. Huhu.

Sorry – it is my first time doing a video! And NO editing!!! and it is dark – of course, its winter here down under.. AND sorry you have to go through me with the seam ripper part too! Hehe. I am hoping to improve soon so I can share better.

Quilty Hugs,

Amira

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In Custom FMQ Sampler Quilt Along

About A Quilt Sampler QAL #16 : Quilting Block 7

August 20, 2013 6 Comments

This post is a part of a quilt along series which I have archived HERE.

In this post, I share how I quilt block #7 of the About A Quilt Sampler.

This time, I tried quilting on grid marking. I marked mine 1/4″ apart, but I think it is a bit too small. You can try 1/2″ apart instead. Mark grids using washable pen in areas that you would like to try some grid quilting.

First quilt the middle square as you prefer. I highlighted the octopus and did a simple swirly around it.

Then I quilt a bead shape trail along vertical lines of the grids till it fills up the whole area then turn and do the horizontal lines with the same bead shape trail.

As you can see, from one area to another area of the grid quilting, I also fill up other areas with radiates and curves pattern. I do this in order to travel from one place to another without having to cut off the threads and starting again. Though if you feel like filling up all the grid area you can too, just stop and do a couple of static end stitches to ensure no stitches will come off later. Then you can start again at another corner of the grid quilting area.

Here is how my block looked liked in the end. Trim to 12.5″ block

Here is the back.

Here is a close up of the grid quilting.

Have a go at grid quilting and some radiates!

Quilty hugs,

Amira

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